First Watch plates another store in south Florida

UNIVERSITY PARK — First Watch, the fast-growing breakfast, brunch and lunch chain, plans to open its first Deerfield Beach location next year.

The store, scheduled to open in early 2014, according to a release, will be the chain's seventh in southeast Florida. The 3,000-square-foot restaurant will be in the Deerfield Mall, in a former H&R Block tax center, and will have 25 employees, University Park-based First Watch says. A Publix anchors the shopping center.

First Watch has made other changes to its southeast Florida market recently. It opened one location in Boca Raton a few months ago, and announced it will move a second store in the area to another spot, the release states.

“Over the past seven years, we have gained a strong, loyal costumer base in southeast Florida that we are confident will carry over to this new restaurant in Deerfield Beach,” First Watch Chief Marketing Officer Chris Tomasso says in the statement. “Given the proximity to our two Boca locations and the success of those restaurants, it seemed natural that we would look for a site in Deerfield Beach.”

First Watch has more than 110 restaurants in 15 states. It has 41 in Florida locations.